9/11: 20 Years Later
that’s still rebuilding from 9/11
community with a sizable residential
population.
“People were on the trains out of town
at 4:45 p.m.,” remembered Jessica Lappin,
president of the Alliance for Downtown
New York, the area’s business-boosting
organization. “Now, whether it’s people
walking their dogs, going for runs or going
for a late night coffee, that has changed the
fabric and makeup of the neighborhood.”
The residential population has nearly
doubled from about 33,000 in 2001 to
some 64,000 in 2020 and has skewed
younger too during that time, according to
Basha Gerhard, the senior Vice President
of planning at the Real Estate Board of
New York, a real estate lobbying group.
Part of the changing population was due
to the 421-g tax incentive, also known as
Lower Manhattan Conversion Program,
which encouraged landlords to repurpose
commercial buildings into apartments.
The number of residential buildings rose
from 188 in 2001 (pre-9/11) to 341 by mid-
2021 and residential units likewise grew
from 14,588 to 33,714 during that time,
according to data from the Alliance and the
real estate investment fi rm CBRE Group.
“This was thousands of thousands of
square feet,” said Gerhard. “It’s not happening
on this building-by-building basis,
this is something that was happening
throughout the neighborhood.”
Tourism surged too as the the number
of hotels has grown from six to 37 and
the annual number of tourists has almost
Larry Silverstein (second from right) receives the ceremonial keys to the World Trade Center on July 24, 2001.
doubled from 7.2 million per year to 14
million, according to the fi gures.
Activity begets more activity and with
the infl ux of newcomers came coffee shops,
retail, and other small businesses catering
to them, and the change can serve as a
model for other downtowns, according to
the real estate expert.
“We truly believe post-9/11 will be a case
study for smart longterm planning and a
way to create a more dynamic, vibrant,
economically resilient business district,”
Gerhard said.
Pandemic protection
The mix of uses has also helped the area
COURTESY OF SILVERSTEIN PROPERTIES
better weather the COVID-19 exodus of
offi ce workers, according to Lappin.
“In June or July of last year it was pretty
quiet downtown,” she said. “Thank goodness
we had some residential population to
keep our restaurants and businesses open.”
She believes that commercial cores will
bounce back, marking another turbulent
chapter in the 400-year-old neighborhood
at the southern tip of Manhattan.
“In the short term I do hope that some
of the vibrancy that comes from people
mingling returns. I want that for us, I
want that for New York City in general,”
she said. “The reason people live in cities
is that serendipity of being able to bump
into people at coffee shops or the subway.”
Silverstein, recalling those who doubted
Manhattan’s comeback from 9/11, also
voiced optimism, for Lower Manhattan’s
future.
“People told me that once they left, no
one would ever come back here, and I
listened to those naysayers and I listened
to that negativism and I said to myself,
‘Don’t listen,'” he said. “Yes, the problems
established as a result of the pandemic
we’re having to deal with and easy it’s not
as we see. But by golly, I do believe that
once medicine and science has licked the
worst of it, that people will begin to want
to resume their lives as they’ve known it.”
Larry Silverstein looking out the window of the new 7 World Trade Center building at the Ground Zero construction site
in 2006.
Schneps Mediia September 9, 2021 9